'Delighted': the first patients to have operations abroad

The first patients to escape hospital queues by travelling abroad with the NHS said they were 'delighted' by their operations in France.

The surgery on a carefully selected group of nine patients confirmed Britain's status as having a Third World health service which cannot care for its own patients.

The hip, knee and cataract operations performed on the four men and five women were trouble-free and ended months of agony.

All had escaped waits of a year or more by travelling to La Louviere Clinic in Lille on Eurostar - dubbed the 'NHS express' - under the pilot NHS Abroad scheme.

Ministers are relying on hospitals in Europe, and possibly as far afield as Tunisia and Turkey, to ease pressure on waiting lists, with an estimated 2,500 people having waited more than six months for surgery.

By March 2002, 200 patients from Kent, Sussex and Portsmouth will be sent to hospitals in France and Germany.

The scheme, at an estimated cost of £1million, aims to treat patients within 15 days of assessment by French medics visiting Britain - a speed which the NHS can only dream of for routine operations.

Grandmother Gill Hancock, 67, was the first patient up and about after an operation to remove a cataract in her left eye.

The retired accounts clerk, from Kent, who was accompanied by husband John, 68, has

delighted medics with her progress because her vision has already cleared.

The day after her operation she was able to go for a brief walk around the grounds of the private 295-bed clinic and into the town centre.

'I have enjoyed the trip,' she said. 'I am very fortunate to be here, I am one of the chosen few. I would certainly recommend it. I can see better already.'

Mrs Hancock said the attitude of the 'incredibly attentive and caring' staff was 'a bit different' from the NHS.